This invention relates to a surveillance system for simultaneously observing a plurality of locations. Surveillance systems have been used for a wide variety of purposes, such as providing security for users of a site, preventing theft or fraud, and monitoring to ensure compliance with operating procedures.
Typically, such systems involve a plurality of video cameras disposed at the monitored site, arranged to cover various locations of interest at the site. The video cameras may be configured to pan, zoom, and tilt to increase their usefulness in monitoring. Auditory monitoring equipment in the form of microphones may be placed at some locations and may be associated with particular video cameras to provide auditory surveillance as well.
Feeds from the video cameras and/or microphones may be sent to a central viewing location, where video and audio data may be recorded, and monitored in real time by security personnel. One or more video displays and/or speakers may be provided to allow a user or users to observe events taking place in the areas monitored by the surveillance equipment. This can be implemented in a number of ways, such as a dedicated display for each video camera, and a switch to select the audio feed for a particular camera of interest. Another way is to associate several video cameras with a display, and time multiplex the video feeds such that the display shows each video feed for a short period of time before switching to the next. A similar approach may be used with audio feeds and a speaker. Controls may be provided for the user to focus on a particular video feed and/or audio feed of interest.
However, economics often dictate having a single user monitor a large number of video and/or audio feeds. This increases the likelihood that the user may miss an event of interest, and becomes a limiting factor in the number of feeds a user can adequately monitor. Most of the time, the images displayed and audio heard are of little interest to security personnel, who must continually watch the images from multiple cameras and attempt to spot suspicious activity.
In addition, if all video and/or audio feeds are recorded, they are typically associated with a particular video camera and/or microphone, and may have timestamps. In order to find an event of interest, a user must determine which camera may have recorded the event and the approximate time of the event, and manually examine the recording to locate the event. This is a time-consuming task, and if the camera and approximate time are not known, many recordings will have to be examined.
There is a need, therefore, for an improved method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for monitoring, recording, archiving, indexing, retrieving, processing, and managing surveillance data.